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Thursday, October 9, 2014

The Best Birthday Present Ever (aka Our New Home)

What could possibly be more exciting than buying your first home? Not much, in my opinion, unless you happen to be doing it on or around your birthday!

When my husband and I moved into our current apartment last
year, we hoped it would be our last one and that we would be able to purchase
our first home by the time the lease expired this fall. To our surprise, things
ended up moving even a bit more quickly than expected, with us finding a
realtor in late August, launching a search and viewing about 20 homes before finding
the one we loved – a three-level townhouse with a small yard and walkout
basement. We made an offer that very evening, got a reasonable counteroffer, accepted it and went to settlement just a couple days after I celebrated 31 years.

Our first home!

Celebrating with champagne.

Having lived in apartments my entire life, owning a home is
a huge step for me, one that’s scary and thrilling all at the same time. And
while there are definitely a few things we want to have done before moving in
later this month, plus some other changes we'd like to make over time, all in all, we know this will be a great first home for us.

Are you currently house hunting or planning to start
looking? We were lucky to work with an excellent realtor, so if you’re in the DC area and need a referral, just
let me know. If you've previously been in our shoes as a first-time homeowner, do you have any helpful advice to share?

So exciting, congrats! We bought our first home together in 2010 and it was such an experience because we did not know a thing. It makes me laugh now that I think of it. Now that we're getting our second home in less than a month the one thing I am taking with me is to decorate one room at a time. Everything does not need to be done as soon as you get in. Take your time it really shows in the end. And enjoy it, it's such a fun and exciting time. Being able to say, we own this wall is pretty awesome :) Congrats, can't wait to see more of it!

Thanks, Faith! We definitely learned a lot throughout this process. Going one room at a time and not getting everything done right away are things I really need to keep in mind now that we're getting settled this week. Being the organizational nut that I am, I want to get everything ready immediately, but I need to slow down and just take it step-by-step. More pictures coming soon!

Welcome!

I'm a California girl at heart who's learning to live and love life in our nation's capital. Inspired by food, fashion, fitness, travel, career and adventure, I'm on a mission to live a positive, meaningful life to the fullest, whether East Coast or West Coast, in high heels or flip-flops.